Quality assessment tool

A method of assessing speech quality of a sample in a telecommunications network comprising the steps of

• identifying a first dominant distortion type for the sample, the first dominant distortion type being selected from a plurality of possible distortion types;
• selecting a first distortion specific assessment handler in dependence upon said first dominant distortion type from a plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers, each of said plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers being associated with a respective one of said plurality of possible distortion types;
• using the first distortion specific assessment handler to combine a plurality of parameters specific to said first dominant distortion type to provide a distortion specific quality measure for the sample;
• generating a quality measure in dependence upon the distortion specific quality measure;
• and
• storing said quality measure in a computer-readable medium.

A computer readable medium carrying a computer program for implementing a method comprising:

• dividing a database comprising a plurality of samples, each with an associated mean opinion score, into a plurality of distortion sets of samples according to a dominant distortion present in each sample;
• and
• training a distortion specific assessment handler for each distortion set, such that a fit between a distortion specific quality measure generated from
• a distortion specific plurality of parameters for a sample and
• the mean opinion score associated with said sample is optimized.

An apparatus for assessing speech quality of a sample in a telecommunications network comprising

• means for identifying a first dominant distortion type for the sample, the first dominant distortion type being selected from a plurality of possible distortion types;
• a plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers each of said plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers being associated with a respective one of said plurality of possible distortion types for combining a distortion specific plurality of parameters to provide a distortion specific quality measure for the sample;
• means for selecting a selected distortion specific assessment handler in dependence upon said first dominant distortion type from said plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers;
• and
• means for generating a quality measure in dependence upon the distortion specific quality measure;
• and,
• a computer-readable medium for storing said quality measure.

An apparatus for training a quality assessment tool comprising

• means for dividing a database comprising a plurality of samples, each with an associated mean opinion score, into a plurality of distortion sets of samples according to a dominant distortion present in each sample;
• and
• means for training a distortion specific assessment handler for each distortion set, to provide an optimized fit between a distortion specific quality measure generated from
• a distortion specific plurality of parameters for a sample and
• the mean opinion score associated with said sample;
• and
• a computer-readable medium for storing said optimized fit.

A computer readable medium carrying a computer program for implementing a method comprising:

• wherein said method further:
• identifying a first dominant distortion type for a sample, the first dominant distortion type being selected from a plurality of possible distortion types;
• selecting a first distortion specific assessment handler in dependence upon said first dominant distortion type from a plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers, each of said plurality of distortion specific assessment handlers being associated with a respective one of said plurality of possible distortion types;
• using the first distortion specific assessment handler to combine a plurality of parameters specific to said first dominant distortion type to provide a distortion specific quality measure for the sample;
• and
• generating a quality measure in dependence upon the distortion specific quality measure.